Tasmanian Rotarians Empowers Families in Ghana and Uganda
In this year of empowering women, it is timely to shine a light on the work of Rotarian Donna Mlejnek of the Rotary Club of Devonport South East, Tasmania - and the impact such work is having on quality of life for some families in Ghana and Uganda.
An early childhood teacher of 20 plus years experience, Donna decided she wanted to assist those less fortunate in the world when her three children ‘left the nest’ to pursue their own careers some years ago.
Her personal career has taken many turns with TAFE teaching, University tutoring/teaching and family support roles in the difficult and complex areas of drug, alcohol, violence, poverty and mental health. She has worked in family support roles for the past 13 years whilst carrying out further study to be involved in Developmental Trauma/Brain Development and Attachment.
Always time and resource poor, Donna has pushed herself to achieve other vital areas of expertise including a study course to teach English as an additional language.
Based in Albury Wodonga, her interest in support for families in developing countries became a passion following a visit to Ghana in 2018 and resulted in the Ghana farm project in a small village in the Volta region in 2019.
Funding is always a challenge with such projects but, with her adult family enjoying successful careers, Donna chose to make things happen and fund her own travels and research from her full time employment – gathering a little extra along the way from special teaching/tutoring and valued support from family and friends.
Her work in Wodonga throughout 2016/2017 connected her with refugees from the Congo and the refugee community as a family support worker which introduced her to the Murray Valley Sanctuary Group.
Searching for resources to assist her cause, Donna joined the Rotary Club of Albury North in 2020 but did not have time to build relationships, given her career move to Tasmania in 2021.
From this point on, Donna’s story is almost unbelievable…
· Her first trip to Kampala in 2019 saw her working with refugee groups in Kampala and local villagers in Accra – and remember this work is taking place in a forever threatening environment.
· In January 2020, she met and worked with the Burundian refugee group in Kampala (English language skills) and, over two weeks, visited with families in the Nakivale refugee camp. The Refugee Life Support Network is a not-for-profit group providing support to the refugee community in Kampala. The Network is registered in Uganda but is not a recognised Australian charity.
· She returned to Australia in February 2020 and commenced tutoring plans with Burundian children in Kampala.
· Late 2020, she became an Albury North Rotarian and fellow Rotarian Mary Widdicomb joined the tutoring program.
Vital time was spent prioritising what the Burundian community thought was most important for future well being and development –
Education for children, pre and post natal health, connection with youth, English lessons for adults, pre-school for children, business development for women’s group, maintaining French language in future generations were agreed priorities.
Donna started with two students on the Ugandan English curriculum S6 and numbers grew steadily. Mary Widdicomb picked up the challenge and there was soon a group of ten students working throughout the pandemic.
Text books and other resources – especially computers – were non existent.
Of course, the challenges changed again with Donna’s move to employment in Devonport, Tasmania, in February 2021 where she had good fortune to be warmly welcomed by the Rotary Club of Devonport South East.
GHANA – THE Acome village project
The Ghanaian Farm project commenced in 2019 and continues to thrive. Donna revisited the project in 2020 and plans to return again in March 2023.
Her original assignment was in Accra and, during that time, she had services of a driver named Rafael who was a traditional owner of land in Volta and lived in the village of Acome.
Whilst driving, they talked at great lengths on sustainable farming, access to water, employment and education in Ghana. With no employment and lack of income to support families, Rafael said young people, especially men, were moving out of Acome, leaving the village and elders vulnerable.
He explained that the village had a small school but many families could not afford to send their children.
Rafael took Donna back to the village several times and spoke of a desire to build sustainability into the community to return a sense of pride to the villagers who had great respect for each other and their community.
Donna was invited to meet with village elders and they agreed on a concept of planned mixed sustainable farming. Only locals have been employed on the work to date, which is supported by the total community.
First stage was to clear land and build a substantial chicken house, then the purchase of 100 birds with a plan to sell for Christmas whilst Donna worked hard to acquire funding support.
Success breeds success and, each year, another resource is added that grows the farm – increased the meat bird flock, added laying hens, sold eggs and chickens to support and feed the community. Rafael’s young brother was sponsored to attend the bee keeping school in Accra and the first hive has been successful with plans for more.
The farm now sells eggs, chickens and honey – and the community has agreed a long term crop was needed. More land was cleared and coco plants with a five year turn around have been planted. A fish farm is part of future plans.
Every cedi(dollar) goes back into the farm infrastructure – fertilizer, chicken coop extension, immunization of chickens and running costs. Saving is under way for the first village bore which will save women hours of walking time to access the only current water supply.
Donna said the big dream now is to establish a system in the current school under which all children may attend – and allowing for teacher training.
Donna says ‘dreams are free’ but the Acome village success story proves dreams also come true.
She is working with Rotary leaders to see what special funding might be available – and to set up a fund raising link to provide easy access
‘The fire in my belly began when I met people who had lived lives that were so incredibly tough but they were still so positive! That drove my first visit – Ghana and the farm project…’ Rotarian Donna Mlejnek